Animals
A feral burro grazes in Beatty, Nevada.
As Josh has said “Your BINGO Card is getting full!” I feel like a kid looking to check off all the animals I can spot on this road trip. And we are doing quite well.
A ground squirrel perches on a rock at Morro Bay, California
Of course we have seen various types of squirrels, starting with our common grey squirrels to a California ground squirrel which is just that- lives in a burrow on the ground. They are slightly smaller than ours back home. Have seen Chipmunks at several places and they are one of my favorites. We just saw today a marmot in a national park in Utah. I would describe it as a squirrel on steroids, I read that they can get up to 10 pounds. We have also seen Cottontail rabbits and Jack rabbits. Jack rabbits have the large ears that stick up.
We have seen several roadrunners in every state we’ve been in, most right in the campgrounds we were staying in. They are fast so keep your eyes peeled. We also had a pair of red-headed woodpeckers in the tree at our site, sat and watched them peck at a dead tree. Hummingbirds are also in desert, and are probably loving the super bloom also. There was an owl mother in a nest at a historic monument we visited keeping an eye on us and the father owl up in rafter watching also.
Sea otters frolic in Morro Bay, CA.
We stepped into the Pacific Ocean on this trip and went to Morro Bay for fresh seafood lunch one day. There we saw Sea Otters lounging in water with smaller youngsters still nursing. Also saw several LARGE Sea Lions on the back swim platforms of boats at dock just napping in the warm sun. One bellowed at some teenage girls that were coming along the dock to try to a get closer view, startled the girls and they ran away.
Sea lions rest on a boat at Morro Bay, CA.
Several different types of sheep and deer- Bighorn sheep, Pronghorn deer and mule deer, along with the white tail deer. Various lizards too, including horned toads and chuckwallas, plus some we don’t know what they were. Alas, no Gila Monster. We did see a coyote just taking his time crossing the road in the park we were camping in, not far from the sites. And in Beatty, Nevada, they had a bunch of burros just walking around they were in charge.
A desert bighorn sheep at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada.
Let me shout how Happy I am to say we have not seen any snakes (rattled or otherwise) nor scorpions! I will be content to leave those boxes on my Bingo Card unchecked. Still, I will be scanning the area for more beautiful wildlife.
This burro seemed to be disappointed when Josh didn’t feed him.